An E-Health Readiness Assessment Framework for Public Health Services--Pandemic Perspective

A pandemic can increase the morbidity and mortality levels, and as a result cause social disruption and economic losses. E-Health, an application of information and communication technologies for health, may mitigate the impact of a pandemic by enhancing pandemic surveillance and control (e.g., rapid case reporting) and improving performance of medical practices (e.g., efficient documentation). The implementation of E-Health requires proper planning and management. E-Health readiness assessment represents an important step in change management, and including this step in the planning process increases the chances of E-Health implementation success. In this paper, we develop a framework of E-Health readiness assessment for a pandemic from healthcare organisational and providers´ perspectives.